Looking at the breakdown of law in the state, Sangh along with its several other allied associations are of the view that Modi government should take notice of the state and impose President’s rule in UP without any hesitation. But the problem for the BJP is that its numbers in the Rajya Sabha is much lower than majority – the Rajya Sabha has a total of 245 members and one need the support of 123 members for a majority. According to the present numbers, the Congress has about 70 members in the Rajya Sabha and the UPA together have 104 members. On the other hand, there are merely 42 members from the BJP, BSP has 14, JD (U) 9, and SP has 9, too. To manage this, some BJP strategists want to call upon a joint session of the Parliament. Thus, if Modi government wants to call for President’s rule in the state, it can have it passed through a joint session of the Parliament. But it is being said that Modi himself is against such a move; Modi is of the opinion that the Centre should have as little interference in the state’s functioning as possible. Modi has his own theory about Centre- State relationship and he is said to be in support of giving states as much autonomy as possible.

Just because he lost with a few thousand votes from Bhagalpur constituency, Shahnawaz’’s political opposition members are considering it the end of his political career. But a seasoned politician is exploring new opportunities for himself nowadays. His eyes are set on Bihar, where Assembly elections are due to be held soon. Hussain does not lose a chance to tell those close to him that the Pant Marg house where he stays is considered really lucky for his predecessors. Shahnawaz has been heard telling people, “Whoever has stayed in this house has become a chief minister, be it Shivraj Singh or Raman Singh.” Shahnawaz Hussain has been as active as ever in politics and nowadays he is seen around Sushma, Rajnath and Gadkari.

The demand for a change of guard in Maharashtra has been on for sometime now. Speculations were rife that considering the elections in the state, some other Maratha politician may be made the chief minister instead of Prithviraj Chavan. There were several names in the race, for instance, Radha Vikkhe Patil’s name was ahead in the race, Narayan Rane was also lobbying for the state’s top job for a while. But there has been an official statement from the Congress party denying these “rumours”, and the party has made it clear that the Assembly elections will be contested under the tutelage of Prithviraj Chavan. At the same time, the rumours have caught strength that state President Manik Rao Thackeray may be changed and former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan may be brought in his position.

A few days ago, UP’s bahubali leader Raja Bhaiya’s residence saw a horde of SP MLAs congregate and a meeting of minds took place for four days on how Thakur MLAs had no future under the leadership of Akhilesh and Mulayam. Sources reveal that Raja Bhaiya put forward his thoughts wondering why they don’t join the BJP listening to the footsteps of the Assembly elections due to take place in 2017. It is believed that Raja Bhaiya has assured the Assembly members that if they want, he can introduce them to Party President Rajnath Singh. But most of them expressed an interest to meet Narendra Modi. To this Raja Bhaiya said that his clout extended only till Rajnath Singh and that he had no way to get through to Narendra Modi. When Mulayam and Akhilesh came to know about the meeting, Akhilesh instantly asked for the state CID for details of the meeting and the CID reported that less than half a dozen MLA were there for the meeting and only then did the father-son due heave a sigh of relief.

News is going strong that before the Parliament’s Monsoon Session, there might be an expansion and some possible changes in Modi’s Cabinet. Modi Cabinet’s face hasn’t really got the right shape at present – several heavyweights have lights charges, and some lightweight politicians have big responsibilities, while some of them have additional charges to take care of. There might be attempts, therefore, to make the Cabinet more well-balanced. Several ministers may see their ministries being changed, several may be freed of their additional responsibilities and new ministers may be inducted. For instance, Nitin Gadkari is eyeing the Defence Ministry and Modi is looking for a face from the backward and rural background after Gopinath Munde’s sudden demise in an accident. There is a long line of leaders such as Ramesh Bains, Anurag Thakur, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Dushyant Singh and J P Naddha who want to be inducted into Modi’s Cabinet. But the decision will depend on how much place these people have managed to make in Modi’s heart.

After the current Parliament session got over, the Gandhi family, that is Sonia, Rahul, Priyanka and Robert are headed to Europe (and most possibly, Italy) for a two-week vacation. Regarding the vacation, Sonia summoned her loyal Makhanlal Fotedar and clearly told him that there should be no meeting of the Congress Working Committee during this time. On the other hand, several veteran congress leaders along with Fotedar himself feel that at such a time the Gandhi family should not go on such a long vacation. At a time when the party has seen a washout in the entire nation, when the party leaders are disappointed and feeling hopeless, and when six states are due to face Assembly elections in the next few months. But it doesn’t seem as if the Gandhi family is going to reconsider its decision. Rahul and Priyanka keep going abroad on small intervals; after the elections, Priyanka went to Dubai first, and then to London. So for now it seems that the oldest political family in India, the Congress will have to depend on imported courage and non-resident dreams.

Narendra Modi is keeping an eye on his officers and ministers. Not just the ministers, their personal staff is also under the scanner of investigative agencies – who they meet, who visits them, their phone call records are also sifted through. Ministers have been told that their process to take decisions should follow processes and be transparent and that more significant decisions be taken in consultation and green signal from the PMO. So much so that to pass a file that deals with more than Rs one crore has to be sent to the PMO. The lifestyles of ministers are also changing and tough times are ahead for those who sleep late and wake up late in the morning. Some ministers have even confessed that sometimes the Prime Minister even calls them at six am and some of them are asked to reach the PMO in half an hour. So not only has the Nizam of Delhi changed, but also the way work and business is conducted.

Now Priyanka has a big role to play in big decisions taken by the Congress party. It was because of Priyanka that Kamal Nath just missed becoming the leader of Opposition in the Parliament. The Gandhi family is a tad suspicious of Kamal Nath’s good relations with Gautam Adani. They are of the opinion that Adani may become a big link between Kamal Nath and Modi, which would have made it easier for the BJP to conduct business in the Parliament if Kamal Nath was heading the Opposition. So Priyanka first considered Captain Amarinder Singh’s name, but it is believed that he was not ready to give so much time to the Parliament and thus the name of a Dalit leaders, Mallikarjun Kharge was put forward. It is said that Priyanka herself spoke to Kamal Nath and assured him of a better role when the party next comes into power. This shows that the Gandhi family somehow sensed the possibility of a connection between Kamal Nath and Modi.

It is possible that the Monsoon Session will start from July 7 and this new session may come with new possibilities for Modi government. The Modi government may appear in the session in a whole new avatar and spadework is being done for several important bills. On the other hand, several old political equations may see a change. Several regional parties that were, until now, going into town talking against Modi are now having an internal debate on whether the Congress can become a strong Opposition party with just 44 seats. The question is crucial and thus, the regional parties are trying to form a federal front to take over as the Opposition in the Parliament.

Mukul Rohatgi, who is extremely close to the BJP, has had his file related to being appointed as the next Attorney General had been stuck in the PMO for some time. This file has been stuck there since the 27th of last month. It is worth mentioning here that Rohatgi has been a counsel in the Babri Masjid demolition case, the 2002 Gujarat riots and has also represented Baba Ramdev and Varun Gandhi. Rohatgi is also considered to be extremely close to Arun Jaitley, BJP’s most powerful minister. His friendship with Ravi Shankar Prasad is also there for all to see. Modi and Jaitley’s partnership is already being compared to Atal-Advani and Modi has given a freehand to Jaitley on law and several other matters. Mukul Rohatgi is also said to be close to Anil Ambani and it is possible that Ambani senior may not like it. Apart from this, Ranjeet Kumar’s name is being talked about for the Solicitor General’s post and Sanjay Jain’s name for Additional Solicitor General. Sources reveal that there has been opposition to this from one BJP leader – Sushma Swaraj – who says that Rohatgi, Ranjeet and Sanjay connections with the same law firm and so appointing all three of them for these three posts is not justified. The entire matter is now becoming more and more complicated.